Microsoft identifies ‘frontier firms’ as shaping the future of work There is a seismic shift underway in the world of work, according to The 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report. A new type of organisation is emerging: the frontier firm, which has intelligence on tap and sees AI agents working alongside humans. This new type of firm is already taking shape, and Microsoft expects every organisation to be on the journey to becoming one within the next two to five years. The report found 46 per cent of organisations are already using agents to fully automate workstreams, with 81 per cent of leaders saying they expect to use digital labour to expand workforce capacity in the next 12-18 months. Currently, 71 per cent of workers at these frontier firms say their company is thriving, compared to just 37 per cent of workers globally. To further support organisations in this new era of work, Microsoft also revealed wave two of the Microsoft 365 Copilot Spring release, which includes Copilot Notebooks, Copilot Search and updates to Copilot Control System. Find out more about frontier firms in our cover story, on page 46 Armor Defense cuts cybersecurity threat investigation time to 40 seconds The Armor Intelligence Platform (AIP), a core capability in the company’s managed detection and response architecture, uses agentic AI to compress complex threat investigations from 15 minutes to just 40 seconds. “Accelerating time to action is not just about speed – it is about replicating the sharp judgment of top-tier analysts at scale,” said Brady Willis, vice president of security operations at Armor Defense. “This is not automation for its own sake. It’s applied intelligence: modular agents designed to think like humans, act at machine speed and deliver consistent, explainable decisions. This is how we rethought detection and response – and why it is changing what is possible in cybersecurity.” DID YOU KNOW? Scammers drained the global economy of more than $1 trillion in 2024, according to the Global AntiScam Alliance, with nearly half of the world’s consumers dealing with at least one attempted scam per week. NEWS IN NUMBERS $400 million is to be invested by Microsoft into expanding cloud and AI infrastructure for Swiss data centres, which serve 50,000 existing customers. 80% of generative AI business applications will be developed by organisations on their existing data management platforms by 2028, predicts Gartner 30% of Microsoft's direct emissions were successfully reduced in 2025 compared to 2020, according to its Environmental Sustainability Report. 23 Read more about Armor’s approach to AI on page 62
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